Among the many schwag items that we're considering is the Stack Overflow Beer Stein. For those of us who don't like to drink our delicious brewed beverages from a simple 16 oz. glass, it will be a hearty 25 oz. beast, equipped for even the longest coding binges.

The only thing is, we need a witty or creative saying (or drawing or something) to put on the glass.

So — we need your help! Come up with something funny to go on the mug (it should somehow involve both programming and beer, of course) or help by just voting on your favorites.

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Some of the answers deal with SO specifically, others with the SE sites generally. Not sure what the intention was.
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msh210May 12 '11 at 21:14

3

To be clear: is this printed with color-changing ink or not?
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Jan FabryJun 8 '11 at 12:19

13 Answers
13

Coors has put a lot of effort into its "cold activated cans" campaign, at least in the US. Basically, they've done some chemistry with inks/dyes on their labels that make them change color when the beverages are cooled to a good drinking temperature (illustration). Apparently, the fancy name for this is thermochromism.

Stack Overflow steins should just have images of the voting buttons on the side, with the upvote button changing color to orange when in the cold, "containing beer" state.

The problem with this, of course, is that it's not good for i18n; residents of some countries prefer warm beer, I've heard. ← Apparently, that's just a myth. Thanks, commenters!

Possible problems: gray-to-orange ink might be prohibitively expensive to use on a stein, might be toxic and might not even exist. Same for clear-to-green ink.

EDIT: There are existing clear-to-green, clear-to-orange and yellow-to-orange inks for drinkware! I don't know how appropriate they would be for this project, but this is definitely encouraging. Source: the Mug Spray Color Chart (PDF) at this manufacturer website.

Really, really quick mockup:

The number of "votes" to have, whether to include the SO logo, and other details are subject to change.

The check mark should go away when empty.
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Bill the LizardApr 22 '11 at 17:30

3

As someone who lives in a country where we allegedly prefer warm beer; let me assure you: not so much...
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Marc Gravell♦Apr 25 '11 at 13:10

@Marc, so what is the preferred temperature for "you people"? FWIW, I've been to several establishments in the US that refrigerate their beer and freeze their glasses, which is really about as far as you can go, cooling-wise.
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Pops♦Apr 25 '11 at 14:28

2

We drink our beer so cold, we have to lick it!
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PëkkaApr 25 '11 at 15:09

fl.oz., really? Think international people! (Pints, by preference) Oh, and can the Up Arrow && the Tick light up? How much would that cost? I think that the "warm beer" thing is a myth, seems to have been in Germany pre-1930. No one* drinks lagers warm by choice csulb.edu/~parayner/WarmorCold.html
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James BroadheadApr 25 '11 at 15:59

10

I think the biggest challenge will be getting the stein to change shapes the way it does in the photo.
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Phil LelloApr 25 '11 at 19:22

Yep, this suggestion was definitely the first one around the office. Want to come up with our own thing though.
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Alex Miller♦Apr 22 '11 at 15:56

5

Or maybe just the first pane by itself.
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Robert HarveyApr 22 '11 at 15:56

2

But what's an xkcd without a mouse hover? That would require some heat sensitive paint to show when the stein is empty! ;-)
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ArjanApr 22 '11 at 16:26

1

Have the mouseover be on the otherside of the print. Like when they put them on the soft drink bottles @arj
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randomApr 22 '11 at 17:19

@random you're doing it wrong. The onhover goes on the inside so that you look over the rim to see it. That way you could do two such prints concurrently if you felt so inclined.
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jcolebrandApr 22 '11 at 23:07

Obviously more clever name, rep, and badge counts would make this better but I do not possess "the funny"
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Daniel DiPaoloApr 22 '11 at 16:05

For badges (if this design is pursued) you need an icon for Hops, one for Barley, and one for Water. (I choose barley on account of I like malted barley beer, but that's just me). So they could be in that order too, and some ratio'd percentage-average of many beer types?
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jcolebrandApr 22 '11 at 23:14